


It's okay if I see you in my dreams (so let's meet again)

by thesugar



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Chinese Mythology & Folklore, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21512002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesugar/pseuds/thesugar
Summary: Chanyeol never believed in deities; until he met Baekhyun.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: ExOnce Upon A Time: Round II





	It's okay if I see you in my dreams (so let's meet again)

_**Chang An, 707 AD, Spring** _

Chang An, the city with a name that meant ‘perpetual peace’, was hardly peaceful. On the contrary, it just regained its status as the capital of the Tang Empire two years ago and now, it was perpetually bustling. The royal capital welcomed outsiders from all around — from places as near as the outskirt towns of the empire, to places far and wide beyond the empire. That was probably why the people of Chang An were touted as one of the most knowledgeable in the empire; they had seen and heard about many things. The locals attributed it to the gossip culture in their inns, where the adults engaged in idle chatter amongst themselves at a table for four, while the children pestered storytellers to tell them of tales that came from far and wide.  
  
It was probably for this reason that storytelling become a flourishing business in Chang An. For the price of a piece of coin, one could get the storyteller to narrate a short tale, while a longer tale cost an additional piece of coin or two. The children who congregated at the inns often brought a piece of coin each, and they would pull together their coins and gather around the storyteller, listening to his tales for hours.  
  
Of all the storytellers in Chang An, there was a special one from the Magpie Inn, and he sat at his inn every day of the month, from dawn to dusk, except for one day in the summer. This special storyteller was a very old man, probably around 60, and he dressed himself in the colourful red-blue-white Silla attire. He could speak the local tongue, but it was heavily accented.  
  
When the storyteller from Silla first came and opened the Magpie Inn, the locals, from young to old, were all wary of him. The inn was decorated in Silla style, and looked distinctly out of place in the Tang capital. But after the people realised he was settling down here and that he could speak their tongue, the adults eventually opened up to him and the children all grew to love him. Which is why even though Master Lu from Magnolia Inn knew of more stories, the children seemed to always flock to the old Silla storyteller at the Magpie Inn.  
  
Today, as usual, the children were gathered around the storyteller, pestering him for a new story.  
  
“How about we relive the story of the cowherd and the weaver girl?” He asked. It was his favourite story and he had told the children this story many times before, each time with a slight twist to the plot.  
  
“We’ve heard that story many times already!” The children complained. “Can we have a different story today, please?”  
  
“But children, that is the only story that I know by heart,” the elderly man said with a sigh.  
  
“What about a different version of this story?” One of the older boys by the name of Jiaheng quietly asked. “This time with different names and different characters…”  
  
“Ah, a different version,” a small grin crept onto the elderly man’s face. The elderly man turned to look at the huge portrait of a young handsome Silla man that hung in the main hall of the Magpie Inn for a while, seemingly in deep thought, then with a soft sigh, he turned back to the children and said, “I do know of a pair of star-crossed lovers in real life that was just like Altair and Vega, but your mothers are probably not going to be very happy to hear that I told you this story.”  
  
“We won’t tell, we promise!” Some of the children replied excitedly. The old storyteller shook his head with a slight grin creeping on his face. “There are too many of you here, someone might let slip.”  
  
“We won’t tell anyone that we heard it from you,” Jiaheng spoke up again. The old Silla storyteller looked at the boy with a meaningful smile. He appeared to think about what the children promised, while they held their breaths, anxious to hear about the story. Finally, with a twinkle in his eye, the old Silla storyteller started recounting the forbidden love story of the star-crossed lovers from Silla.

_***_

_{Once upon a time, there was an orphan named Altair who lived with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law did not like him and was mean to him. Once, she gave him 9 cows to herd, but told him to return with 10 cows. Altair was desperate, but the Heavens were kind to him. He found a sickly, old cow in the mountains, which he nursed back to health. He later found out that the old cow was Taurus, who was from the Heavens but banished down to Earth. Altair eventually returned home with Taurus.}_

_**Seorabeol, 662 AD, Summer** _

The day that Fire first met the eldest young master of the Park family was the 15th day after the Summer Solstice. It was midsummer and the dog days of summer were coming; the sun was scorching and everyone in the village, except Fire, busied themselves with either farming or herding. Having lost his parents a couple of years back, Fire lived with his older brother and sister-in-law. The latter unfortunately saw him as an additional burden, so she often sent him away to run errands in the nearby village or sent him up the mountains to herd or pick herbs.  
  
On that fateful day, Fire had already left home for five days, and was starting to make his way back down the mountains. He had been picking herbs in the mountains for his brother’s medicine as they did not have enough money to buy it. Unfortunately, it had not been easy finding all the herbs up in the mountains either and he could already imagine his sister-in-law’s displeasure as he made his way back down without sufficient herbs.  
  
He was nearing the foot of the mountain when he briefly made out the image of a young man lying on the forest ground in the far distance. Fire could hear the young man wincing in pain softly, but what caught his attention was the young man’s lack of movement, even when he deepened his footsteps as a way to alert the latter of his presence. Fire soon realised that the man was injured — there was an arrow pierced into his liver and blood was oozing everywhere. He tapped the injured man’s forearms gently to try and get some form of reaction, but the latter appeared to be unconscious from his injury. Immediately, Fire used a knife to cut away a good half of the arrow, leaving just enough to remove the arrow head later. With the injured man on his back, Fire then hurried all the way back up the mountains to his own hut. It was a shabby makeshift hut that he built just 50m away from the foot of the mountain, but it provided good shelter and now rest for the injured man.  
  
With the young man now lying on the hay-strewn bed, Fire got to work starting a fire that could be used to heat up a large pot of water for cleaning the wound. However, he was immediately presented with a new challenge as there was insufficient clean cloth. The injured man was visibly dressed in expensive clothes so Fire was left with no other option but to tear off a streak of cloth from his own outfit. With the torn cloth now wet with hot water, he got to work removing the arrow head that was pierced into the injured man.  
  
Truth be told, Fire had never done something like this before. But he had seen the old physician at the village’s medicinal hall do this once, so he did his best to mimic the elder’s actions with just his bare hands and the hot, wet cloth as he worked through the night. Fortunately, the arrow head was removed by midnight and when the injured man woke up around dawn, Fire could not be more proud of himself for saving someone’s life.  
  
The young man could not stop expressing his gratitude towards Fire for saving his life; just moments before he blacked out from his injury, he was certain he would die in the forest grounds without anyone‘s knowledge. However, he became visibly hesitant to talk when Fire probed for his reasons to enter the forest, and sensing the hesitation, the young villager did not push for a response. Instead he asked if there was a need for him to travel into the inner city to inform the young man’s family members of his safety, to the young man’s surprise. He wondered if Fire recognised who he was, but the latter shook his head. What he knew was that the injured man looked foreign to him (since he knew everyone who lived in the village by the mountain), and he noticed fine quality clothes. Fire also noticed that while the man’s hands were rough, they were not calloused like his, indicating that he did not engage in menial labour. When he pieced all of the information together, it sounded a lot like the young masters of the large families who lived in the inner city. The injured man was impressed by Fire’s deduction skills and praised him for his intelligence.  
  
Eventually, the young man did send Fire to the inner city to fetch some clothes from his home, and that was when Fire found out that he had saved the eldest son of Old Master Park, who was part of the Hwabaek council of aristocrats that made important decisions in the King’s court.  
  
Old Master Park heard about Fire’s kind deeds and summoned the boy to see him, but the boy was extremely nervous about meeting such an important person in his shabby outfit. The Old Master, however, was more than grateful that the young villager was willing to ruin whatever little clothes he had to save his son’s life, so he ordered for a few sets of new clothes to be made and sent to Fire’s house. But this turned out to be a new problem for Fire, as it had been ten days since he was supposed to return home. He was certain he would get a beating if he returned with new clothes for himself but without medicine for his brother. Panicking, the young villager told Old Master Park that he lived alone on the mountains. The patriarch of the Park Family appeared deep in thought for some time, keeping the young boy worried as he remained standing in front of the former in the large hall, but after much silence, Fire was asked if he was willing to come and live in the Park Household — Old Master Park would get one of his assistants to adopt Fire as a son, giving him a proper name and family name.  
  
Fire was ecstatic to say the least. It was uncommon, almost rare, for an ordinary person like him to be able to elevate their bone rank status through adoption, which would give him more opportunities. More importantly, being a member of the Park Household meant being guaranteed three meals a day. It also ensured him warm clothes and a roof to sleep under in the cold winter. While he did feel a little guilty for abandoning his brother, he figured they would live well regardless of his presence, so he accepted Old Master Park’s proposal without much hesitation, thanking the patriarch profusely before returning to the mountains to share the good news. The young master of the Park Household was elated and the pair made plans for their return home five days later when the wound would have healed by then.  
  
In preparation for his new life, the young master gave Fire quick explanations about the household. That was when he found out that the Parks were descended from lesser royals of founding Silla, building their wealth through silk trading with the Tang Dynasty on behalf of the ruling royals. Generations of sons from the Park family also received royal education alongside Princes and other noble boys, most of whom eventually become Hwarangs — the future leaders of the kingdom. Fire’s new young master, who was two years older and named Yeol of the Jeong generation, was no exception and had been receiving royal education for a decade now, alongside his younger brothers.  
  
When it was time for the pair to return to the Park Household, Fire once again found himself blessed by the Heavens.  
  
Old Master Park had originally arranged for Fire to be adopted by his right hand man — Mister Lee — next spring, but no one knew what to do with him in the meantime. At the age of 14, he was too old to be a servant boy to any of the young masters, but also a little too young to follow his adoptive father in running the shops. Unsure of what to do, the butler decided to discuss the matter with young master Jeong Yeol.  
  
Having personally witnessed the boy’s intelligence when they were up in the mountains, Park Jeong Yeol was certain that with proper guidance, Fire could climb to greater heights — so he decided to appoint Fire as his study mate. While the idea of study mates were not unheard of, only a couple of his peers had one, for the Hwarangs were part of an extremely exclusive organisation and the training was insanely tough. Thankfully, Old Master Park did not refute the idea, though the elder warned his son that the Gukseon — the leader of the Hwarangs — would not be easily convinced.  
  
Indeed, it was a task to convince the Gukseon. Only one other Hwarang at that time had a study mate — Baekhyun, the youngest son of the Old Scholar Byun. However, Baekhyun’s study mate was a maternal cousin of his and had been studying classics with him since young. As such, the Gukseon saw the value of training him into an adept assistant for Baekhyun. Besides, Baekhyun had always been a favourite of the Gukseon and often got his way with things. On the other hand, Fire’s low status in the bone rank system was the biggest barrier to his entry. Park Jeong Yeol knew it was a risky gamble, but felt that it was a worthwhile one, so he made a bet with the Gukseon that given one season’s worth of adequate training, Fire would be as good as, if not better than, Baekhyun’s study mate. Fire was an unpolished gem, Park Jeong Yeol had told the Gukseon.  
  
Fortunately, Fire soon proved that his young master had a knack for spotting talent, for he was a hardworking and intelligent student and so, quickly won over the Gukseon. Of the six fields of education that the Hwarangs received — religious teachings, martial teachings, music, dancing, ethics and nationalism, Fire outshined Baekhyun’s study mate in all fields except dancing, but that was something the Gukseon was willing to forego. There was however, something else that the Gukseon was unwilling to forego — Fire’s low bone rank class. The Hwarangs were a state-sponsored educational organisation for elite young males of Silla, so most of them eventually take on important political and administrative roles in the court. But even with Fire’s pending adoption by Mister Lee, his bone rank status would not allow him to take on administrative roles in the government, so the Gukseon did not see any value in training the young boy further.  
  
With the Gukseon’s words in mind, Jeong Yeol decided to propose for Fire to be adopted by his father instead. The Old Master gave this some thought, but quickly agreed to the idea when Jeong Yeol had told him that it would be a good deal for the Park Household. All of Old Master Park’s four sons were either engaged or betrothed to princesses and other members of royalty since young, but as Old Scholar Byun’s influence in the court increased, all the other aristocratic families found it increasingly crucial to secure a marriage liaison with the Old Scholar’s family. Unsurprisingly, Old Master Park was one of those who harboured such hopes, but without any available sons, he had no choice but to give up on this idea. But if he adopted Fire, he could secure a marriage liaison between Fire and at least one of Old Scholar Byun’s nieces — it appeared to be a good deal for providing Fire a family name.  
  
It was hence decided that Fire would be officially adopted by Old Master Park immediately after Seollal. They would also have to give him a new name as Fire was not an appropriate name for someone from a renowned family, even as an adopted son. It also did not seem right for him to use the same generation word as Old Master Park’s other sons, but seeing that Fire received all these blessings because he saved Park Jeong Yeol’s life, it was decided that they would use the second word “Yeol” in Fire’s name too. Park Jeong Yeol thought hard about it, and after consulting with the Gukseon, they decided on Chanyeol, taken from the phrase “profitable fruit”. Fire let his new name roll off his tongue a few times, and the more he said it, the more he liked it.  
  
When winter finally turned into spring, Fire was more than ready to embrace his new identity as Park Chanyeol, the intelligent, adopted son of Old Master Park.

_***_

_{Later on, Taurus gave Altair guidance on where to find the fairy maidens. The fairy maidens were seven sisters who descended from the Heavens and they often came to the Mortal Realm to shower and play. Altair found the place where the fairy maidens showered and took one of the maiden’s clothes; it belonged to Vega, who was the youngest of the seven and was known as the weaving maiden.}_

_**Seorabeol, 663 AD, Spring** _

Most of the aristocratic families of the inner city appeared at the Park Household for the adoption ceremony. By then, most of the Hwarangs had gone home to tell their fathers about Chanyeol’s story. While Old Master Park was initially unenthusiastic about people spreading the word that he was adopting a villager of low bone rank, he soon realised it was good publicity for their household. The ordinary folks of the inner city described Park Jeong Yeol as compassionate and grateful, praised Old Master Park for his foresight in taking Chanyeol into their household, and hailed Chanyeol as a hero for being able to jump the bone rank system. Some even when as far as saying Chanyeol was a gift from the Heavens to Park Jeong Yeol, for he appeared out of nowhere in the mountains to save the latter’s life. So when Park Jeong Yeol suggested inviting other aristocratic families to the adoption ceremony, Old Master Park was quite agreeable with the idea. In particular, the Old Master was extremely keen to invite Old Scholar Byun and his family.  
  
Old Scholar Byun was a retired member of the Hwabaek— the council of nobles that decided on the most important state affairs, and had served four monarchs over the span of his thirty year career. At his peak just before retirement, he had been the Sangdaedeung — the leader of the Hwabaek. After his retirement, his two eldest sons held office in the Hwabaek, and with another old court official about to retire in two years’ time, it appears that his youngest son, Baekhyun, would also be joining the Hwabaek soon.  
  
Before Park Chanyeol impressed the Gukseon, it had always been just Byun Baekhyun who was in the limelight. Despite being a peer of Park Jeong Yeol, Baekhyun was actually closer in age to Chanyeol, turning 15 in early summer, though his young age had never stopped him from receiving all the attention. While the other Hwarangs tended to have inclinations towards either academic or physical education, Baekhyun was always an all-rounder, excelling in all six fields of education, and that was probably why he had always been the Gukseon’s favourite. In fact, the name he currently went by was actually a courtesy name given by the Gukseon — “Baek” meaning white, “Hyun” meaning black, and put together, they represented his duality.  
  
Chanyeol was very much in awe of Baekhyun’s duality when he first started training with the Hwarangs in autumn. Though Chanyeol had a flair for music and his past experience allowed him to understand religious teachings and ethics quickly, he found himself facing issues with using his limbs the way he wanted them to be. While he had the strength of an ox, when he had to spar Baekhyun, he quickly found out that strength was not everything. With his agility and sparring techniques, Baekhyun, though petite, often pinned Chanyeol unto the ground in ten moves or less. Even as Chanyeol’s techniques improved tremendously, he had never managed to win the petite boy in any battle.  
  
In their most recent sparring practice, Chanyeol witnessed how Baekhyun’s appeared to improve with each opponent that he pinned down. By the time they were the last two finalists, Chanyeol was extremely exhausted and had lost in less than ten moves, but Baekhyun seemed more energetic than when he first started. Chanyeol had attributed it to Baekhyun’s stamina, but young master Jeong Yeol had told him that this was where Baekhyun’s intelligence shone through — he was always able to put in just enough effort to beat his opponent, never more than necessary. Chanyeol was not sure he fully understood what his young master was saying, but it did sound like an extremely intelligent way of preserving one’s stamina.  
  
On Chanyeol’s adoption ceremony day, he caught a glimpse of Baekhyun with his father and older brothers. It was not difficult to notice that the youngest son of the Byun family was doted on, and he was also very popular with other aristocratic families. As he watched Baekhyun bask under the attention poured upon him, behaving very much like the youngest child that he was, without a single hint that he was the most gifted Hwarang of their era, Chanyeol could not help but be in awe of Baekhyun’s duality once again.  
  
The servants assigned to Chanyeol saw the attention given to Baekhyun and could not help but feel bad for their new young master, as this was after all his adoption ceremony and the attention should have been on him. But Chanyeol was not bothered by it, shrugging off their concerns and comforting them that he was very much contented with what he was given. Chanyeol did not tell them that he found it difficult to hate Baekhyun; while other Hwarangs initially looked down on him, Baekhyun had said nothing but pleasant words to him. Besides, he was possibly the most chivalrous Hwarang around — he always helped Chanyeol up from the ground after every sparring session and always praised him for doing a good job. It was nothing major of course, but still, Chanyeol was extremely grateful for the kind treatment.  
  
With the spotlight still on Baekhyun, Chanyeol sneaked off to the back garden of the Park mansion after the ceremony. Descended from lesser royalty, the Parks inherited a mansion considerably larger than most aristocratic families. The Park mansion housed three main buildings — the first was the main reception with the hall and dining area, the second (also the largest) was Old Master Park’s living quarters, and the third (also the smallest) was young master Jeong Yeol’s living quarters. One other younger brother had his bedroom in Jeong Yeol’s living quarters, and would stay there until he settled down and started his own family outside, while the youngest two stayed with Old Master Park, as did their only sister — Park Soo Young.  
  
With Chanyeol’s addition in Park Jeong Yeol’s living quarters, truthfully, there was not much space for all three of them, so Chanyeol often found it stifling to stay in his room. Compared to the village beside the mountains, where he was used to the greens and browns of nature, basking in the breeze and taking in the fresh air, being cooped up in a concrete bedroom sometimes came across as overbearing for Chanyeol. As such, taking walks in the back garden slowly became his favourite past time. On most days, he was alone in the back garden, so taking strolls also afforded Chanyeol the little peace and quiet that he sometimes craved with living in a big house.  
  
That particular day however, was slightly different from usual. First, he found an embroidered pouch on the ground — it was bright blue in colour with a beautiful magpie embroidered on the front, and Chanyeol had never seen any stitching as beautiful as this. It looked a lot like a pouch that a young aristocratic lady would carry with her, but there were no young female guests at today’s ceremony, and Chanyeol was certain the pouch did not belong to his adoptive sister, Sooyoung. He contemplated opening up the pouch, though he knew it was impolite to open up something that did not belong to him, but the moment he saw Byun Baekhyun walking through the gardens with his servant girl, a girl who went by the name of Seulgi, he decided to pocket the misplaced pouch, thinking to himself that he would ask the butler about it another day.  
  
Another unique thing about Byun Baekhyun was that a servant girl followed him around wherever he went. It was unusual as servant girls usually did not serve their young masters (only their young misses), not to mention having a servant girl follow her young master outside of her house. But for someone as outstanding as Baekhyun, all the unique things he did probably should not come as a surprise.  
  
Chanyeol was not anticipating to see Baekhyun in the back gardens. Seulgi looked surprised to see him too, and slightly flustered, but Baekhyun, ever so calm, did not display much emotions. Seulgi bowed slightly at Chanyeol, and he returned the politeness; he did the same with Baekhyun, but the latter just gave him a nod and turned away. Chanyeol watched as they walked around the back garden, seemingly looking for something, and it made Chanyeol wonder if the misplaced pouch he picked up earlier belonged to either of them, especially Baekhyun. But since neither of them asked him about a pouch, Chanyeol decided to leave them alone in the gardens.  
  
It was only much later, about half a month later, that Chanyeol found the owner of the pouch by chance.  
  
Just a few days earlier, his adoptive sister, Sooyoung, had gotten engaged with the King’s youngest son, Prince Jongin. The young couple wanted to exchange pendants as engagement gifts for each other, but they were not allowed to meet before the wedding, so each side sent a representative for the exchange. Such tasks were usually undertaken by the bride and groom’s older relatives, and with Sooyoung the second oldest of Old Master Park’s children, the task fell upon the eldest son, Park Jeong Yeol. But the latter was currently away in the mountains as part of his Hwarang training, so after much thought, Old Master Park sent Chanyeol who was a year older than Sooyoung.  
  
A messenger from the palace had come in advance to inform Chanyeol of the date, time and location to meet Prince Jongin’s representative, so on the day of the vernal equinox, just slightly before noon, he set off for the Magpie Inn.  
  
It was the first time he stepped foot into the Magpie Inn, which was possibly the most expensive inn in the inner city. When Chanyeol used to live in the village at the mountain foot, he had heard passing travellers discuss the opulence of the inn, so now that he was in the lavish inn, it felt a little surreal. It was also a little overwhelming, for he had not been told who he was meeting, but thankfully the innkeeper recognised him and appeared to have been waiting for him. Upon his arrival, he was immediately directed up the stairs into one of the corner rooms.  
  
A large round dining table greeted him when he stepped into the ruby red room; there were several plates of dishes placed on the table, seemingly lunch, but no one was in sight. Chanyeol took a seat on the right of the dining table, observing the room he was placed in, as he waited for Prince Jongin’s representative. To the left of the dining table was a beautiful folding screen that divided the room into two and beyond it, he could see the sides of a large daybed. It was rare to see a daybed — the first and only other time Chanyeol saw one was in the Old Master Park’s room — so Chanyeol got up and decided to walk over to take a closer look.  
  
To his surprise, however, Chanyeol found himself looking at not just the daybed, but also Baekhyun’s sleeping form. Awkwardly, Chanyeol sat himself down on the edge of the bed as he observed the latter’s sleeping form. Unlike the dominant and witty Hwarang that he often sparred with, this Baekhyun looked docile and harmless. The soft whining noises he made in his sleep reminded Chanyeol of the stray yellow dog from his village that used to follow him up the mountains. He was not sure how long he sat there, observing Baekhyun in silence, taking in all the curves and softness of his face, but it was peaceful until the room door opened again.  
  
Chanyeol bolted up and tried to peer over the folding screen to see who entered the room, but he quickly turned back around when he heard Baekhyun waking up. Behind him, he heard the soft voice of a female, who turned out to be Seulgi. The latter was shocked to see Chanyeol and quickly bowed in politeness as her young master sat himself up on the daybed. Chanyeol observed the awkwardness in her expression, so he excused himself and sat himself down at the dining table, where he could hear Seulgi’s hushed voice telling her young master that he had a guest waiting.  
  
When Baekhyun was finally ready to meet Chanyeol, the former came out from behind the folding screen, appearing in a bright blue robe. He sat down at the dining table and started taking his lunch, ignoring Chanyeol’s presence. Not knowing what to do, the latter just stared at the young Hwarang, observing the way his slender fingers held the chopsticks, the way he ate in slow, small bites, like the aristocrat that he was. The bright blue robe reminded Chanyeol a lot of the embroidered pouch that he picked up the other day in the back gardens, and again he could not help but wonder if the pouch belonged to the boy sitting in front of him.  
  
Shortly after, Seulgi reappeared from behind the folding screen with a jade pendant in tow, reminding Chanyeol of the purpose of his visit. It took some explaining from Seulgi (that Baekhyun was here because he was a maternal cousin of Prince Jongin, whose mother was a Chinese concubine of the King) before Chanyeol took out Sooyoung’s pendant for the exchange. With her task completed, the young servant girl thanked Chanyeol and disappeared back behind the folding screen. And with his task also completed, Chanyeol guessed he was not welcomed to stay, so he stood up and got ready to leave. But just as he was about to open the room door, he heard Baekhyun finally speaking up.  
  
_Chanyeol_ , the latter said, _you owe me something, don’t you?_ Chanyeol turned around, perplexed by Baekhyun’s words. _My pouch_ , the latter said without looking at him, _I know you have my pouch._  
  
That was when Chanyeol realised his sixth sense had been correct, that the beautiful bright blue pouch with the prettiest magpie embroidered on it had indeed belonged to the young Hwarang. But he could not understand how Baekhyun had it all figured out, so he shook his head and denied it.  
  
_Chanyeol_ , Baekhyun repeated, this time gritting his teeth and finally looking up at him. _You were the only one in the back gardens the other day._  
  
Knowing he could not deny it further, Chanyeol could only admit that he had picked up the pouch, but something in him kept trying to keep the pouch longer, so he lied to the rightful owner that he did not have it with him at that moment.  
  
Baekhyun stared at him in silence, and Chanyeol found himself squirming under the intense stares. It was after a while that Baekhyun sighed and told Chanyeol that he knew the latter had the pouch with him.  
  
_I can tell when you’re lying_ , Baekhyun had said to the taller boy, as a sense of disbelief washed over his face. The young Hwarang then proceeded to recount all the times that Chanyeol told the other Hwarangs white lies so as to escape from their bullying. By the time Baekhyun finished recounting his stories, Chanyeol was uncertain how to feel about this matter — he was partly shocked that he had been caught lying, but there was also a warm sensation flooding over him with the knowledge that someone had been paying such close attention to him.  
  
Unable to delay the return any further, Chanyeol took out the pouch. _I wanted to return it earlier_ , he tried to defend himself, _but I couldn’t be certain if you are indeed the rightful owner._ Chanyeol swore he saw a smirk wash over Baekhyun’s face at that moment as he spoke, but the latter thankfully did not comment on his belated, and possibly pointless, defence. Instead, he asked if Chanyeol had ever opened the pouch. The latter shook his head, this time truthfully, and after some intense staring from Baekhyun again, Chanyeol was dismissed as the stare broke into a small grin.  
  
_How do you know I’m not lying this time_ , Chanyeol wondered out loud just before he left. _I can also tell when you’re not lying_ , was the reply, to which the taller boy could only gawk in disbelief again.  
  
_Have you ever met a deity?_ Baekhyun asked with a chuckle, seemingly not answering Chanyeol’s question and changing the topic completely.  
  
It was an absurd question to Chanyeol, for he never once believed in the heavens. The time he spent in the field and up the mountains taught him that the weather followed a pattern year in and year out, and it was more of a natural cycle than the doings of the Heavens, despite what the other villagers believed.  
  
_If I give you a pair of magpie pouches that look exactly like mine, would you believe that I’m a deity?_ Baekhyun asked again, a smirk appearing on his face.  
  
It was then that Chanyeol realised that Baekhyun had an extremely pretty smile. He had extremely soft facial features, and Chanyeol could not help but stare at the said deity.  
  
_Are all deities as pretty as you?_ Chanyeol found himself brainlessly asking. Another chuckle came from the other boy in the room, and he waved Chanyeol off, telling him to return home early before dusk fell. As he got on the Park family’s horse carriage and rode back to the Park mansion, Chanyeol could not stop thinking to himself about what the young Hwarang said. And that was when he thought to himself that if deities were all pretty as Baekhyun, then maybe there was no harm in believing in deities after all.  
  
Later on, when Chanyeol sometimes thought back about the past, he often wondered back to how everything changed after his encounter with Baekhyun at the Magpie Inn. Baekhyun’s little “secret” changed the dynamics between them, not just because Chanyeol was now more conscious about the things that Baekhyun could potentially do, or could not do, but also because he found himself getting closer and more intimate with the other as the days passed.  
  
True to his word, Baekhyun eventually gave him a pair of magpie pouches — they were as beautiful as the ones stitched on Baekhyun’s pouch, the one which originally tied their fate together, and Chanyeol received many compliments for it. Young master Jeong Yeol often teased him about it, but Chanyeol never told anyone about who had gifted it to him — almost like the pouches were the secret keeper of their relationship. He also often wondered out loud if Baekhyun used his powers to make the pouches more attractive, but the latter would just laugh at the silliness of his words, with the reply that it was one’s heart and effort that made everything much more attractive to the recipient rather than powers. These exact words also made Chanyeol extremely touched, for it was surprising to him that there was someone in this world who was willing to be nice to him, not just because he saved someone’s life or did someone a favour, but just by pure virtue of him being Chanyeol.  
  
For someone who self-proclaimed himself as a deity however, Chanyeol had never seen Baekhyun use his powers. Whenever Baekhyun called him along to the forest to practice their swordplay, the pair took the Byun family’s horse carriage. At meal times, Baekhyun ate as much as, if not more than him. Baekhyun also got hurt, and bled and bruised just like him whenever the former got distracted during their sparring sessions.  
  
All in all, Chanyeol felt that Baekhyun was a normal boy just like him and not at all like Hwanin or the other deities that they learned about.

_***_

_{The pair met each other and fell in love, eventually giving birth to a pair of twins - a son and a daughter. However, this was a violation of Heavenly Rules and Vega was sent back to the Heavens. Altair was in despair, so Taurus showed him the way to travel up to the clouds and find his way to the Heavenly Realms. But just when he thought he could reunite with Vega, the Queen Mother turned one of her hair sticks into the Milky Way, separating the couple, one to each end.}_

_**Seorabeol, 664 AD, Winter** _

Chanyeol’s blessings, however, did not last very long, and he often wondered if he had used up all his good fortune in the process of getting to know Baekhyun. Two years after he became the adopted son of Old Master Park, Chanyeol found himself losing almost everything he had gained before.  
  
It all started when the King had announced the upcoming wedding of Baekhyun and Princess Yerim at his birthday dinner, much to Baekhyun’s chagrin. It was something that Baekhyun should have been prepared for, as the King had betrothed the pair many years ago. Being a maternal cousin of Prince Jongin, he was a perfect candidate to marry Princess Yerim — the Queen’s youngest and most beautiful daughter. However, Baekhyun had delayed the commencement of the wedding process several times under the excuse that he was still in training with the Hwarangs. But with Princess Yerim now the only noble lady of her age still unmarried, the Queen had gotten increasingly anxious. And that was probably why, immediately after the King announced the impending wedding that night, the Queen had ordered for Baekhyun to remain in the palace until the wedding was over.  
  
When Seulgi arrived at the Park Mansion looking for Chanyeol at midnight that fateful day, she had been in tears over her young master’s forceful imprisonment in the palace and how she had not been allowed to follow him. Chanyeol heard about how Old Scholar Byun was extremely unhappy about the news, unwilling to subject his youngest, and most talented, son to a life under the royals’ control. But going against the King meant treason, so there was little that he could do. With Old Scholar Byun feeling helpless about the situation, Chanyeol was not sure either about what he could do to help, but he promised his help to Seulgi once the sun rose.  
  
That night, as he lay in bed unable to sleep, Chanyeol thought a lot about Baekhyun. If he had to pick a moment in the past two years when he was the happiest, it was probably the previous winter when Baekhyun had kissed him in the snow. Chanyeol had never thought about falling in love, especially not with another boy like him, and especially not with a deity. But Baekhyun appeared in his life out of nowhere, just like he had kissed him out of nowhere on that snow field after they both got tired from practicing their swordplay.  
  
_Do you like me_ , Baekhyun had asked after kissing him. Chanyeol was still in a daze at that time, but he was certain he had been nodding his head vigorously in agreement. _But do you like me the way I like you?_ Baekhyun had continued.  
  
Chanyeol was unsure what liking someone was about at that time, but he knew he wanted to kiss Baekhyun over and over again after that first time, so instead of answering the question, he swooped in for another kiss. Baekhyun had flushed and smiled shyly at him after that, and Chanyeol remembered that warm sensation flooding over him once again.  
  
As the sun rose, Chanyeol felt that maybe now, he knew what liking someone was about. He thought back about all the times the warm sensation flooded over him — whenever Baekhyun smiled at him in close proximity after pinning him unto the ground during their sparring sessions, whenever Baekhyun kissed him, whenever Baekhyun brought the little puppies that they adopted together out to see him, and whenever they made love to each other in Baekhyun’s room at the Magpie Inn. So when Seulgi came knocking on the door in the morning, looking for him once again to help save her young master, he donned his best outfit and went to the palace to try and look for his lover.  
  
It was hardly surprising, however, that his efforts were futile, as he had barely reached Prince Jongin’s quarters when the Queen had him thrown into prison on grounds of trespassing into the palace. Even when Sooyoung had come to beg for forgiveness, saying that Chanyeol had been looking for her, the Queen would not budge. Sooyoung later on managed to sneak Seulgi into the prison to visit him, and the servant girl had told him that it was probably because the Queen caught wind of Chanyeol’s liaison with Baekhyun, and the latter had once again refused to marry Princess Yerim.  
  
Chanyeol was unsure how much time passed while he was in prison, but he counted many suns rising and falling through the small window of his prison cell. Seulgi also never came back to visit him after that, so he often wondered if the girl managed to get out of the palace alive, or if she even managed to meet up with Baekhyun again. He spent a very long time in that cold and dark cell alone and he had almost lost all hope of ever making out of the prison cell alive.  
  
When he did get let out of his cell, however, to his horror, it was leading towards his death. At that moment when Chanyeol arrived at the execution grounds, he could feel his heart momentarily stop. Faced with the sudden realisation that he would never get to see his lover again before they parted ways forever, he could not help but let the tears flood his face.  
With every step that he took, walking up onto the platform of his doom, he could feel his heart pounding harder, as his happiest moments with Baekhyun replayed in his head. He reminisced about their kiss in the snowfield. After the kiss, they had taken a long, slow walk in the neighbouring forest, admiring the frozen streams and watching the plum blossoms flower in the cold, harsh winter. Baekhyun had slipped his hand into Chanyeol’s sleeves, catching hold of his lover’s large, warm fingers, and hand-in-hand, they walked back to their log cabin, where Seulgi was waiting for them with hot, delicious red bean soup.  
  
Then out of nowhere, when someone harshly pushed him down and forced him to kneel, he knew his end had arrived. His happy thoughts were broken and he kept his eyes shut tight, waiting for the sword to slice through his neck.  
  
But he waited and waited, and the cold metal never touched his neck, so he opened his eyes only to force them shut again. There was a blinding white light in front of him, but before he could dwell on it, he felt someone grab hold of his hand. The strong hand that held him tugged him along, and suddenly, he himself being lifted off the ground. He was about to panic, but a whiff of that familiar scent and the familiar hold around his waist put him at peace immediately.  
  
Moments later, when they were back on the ground, Chanyeol heard Baekhyun’s sword leave its sheath. The sharp metal quickly cut through the binds that had been holding Chanyeol since he left the prison and soon, Seulgi hurried him up into an unfamiliar horse carriage. Everything happened so quickly that Chanyeol was still in a daze as the horse galloped through the forests, away from the execution grounds. It was only after they had travelled for quite some time, and had left the vicinity of the capital city, that the master-servant duo finally heaved a sigh of relief. Seulgi spoke up first, fussing over Baekhyun’s hands as it started turning blue, but the latter just comforted her that it was not all that painful.  
  
Instead, he turned his attention to his lover and finally told him of the truth. That was when Chanyeol found out that Baekhyun was a child of the Heavenly Emperor and Empress, and he had weaved the Silver River which gave light to Heaven and Earth. As a reward for his hard work, he had been allowed to travel down to the mortal realm as he wished, and the talented deity took a liking to masquerading as a young Hwarang. Out of desperation to save Chanyeol, he had used his photokinetic powers to escape from the palace, and he used it again at the execution grounds to help Chanyeol escape. But openly using one’s powers in front of mortals and for one’s selfish reasons were both serious crimes of the Heavenly Court, and with the pain he was feeling in his hands, Baekhyun knew he was due to return to the Heavens to face his punishment soon.  
  
By the point in time, more tears flooded Chanyeol’s face. He lifted Baekhyun’s left hand up to his face, as if deluding himself into thinking that as long as he could feel the warmth in his lover’s hands, the latter would not have to leave. But Baekhyun knew better than anyone else that his return was inevitable, so he comforted Chanyeol with the knowledge that he did not regret his decision to use his powers to save his lover; in fact, he was extremely grateful to have ever met Chanyeol during his time on Earth.  
  
With heavy hearts, the trio travelled for miles on the horse carriage, stopping only in the middle of the night for rest and going on their way again before the sun rises. Three suns rose and set before they finally arrived at a bustling port town where several ships from the land of the Tang were docked at. Seulgi found them places on a ship that was travelling to the Tang capital, but Baekhyun’s hands darkened and weakened further by then — a sign that he was way past his time to return to the Heavens. Just before they parted, Chanyeol asked his lover if they would ever get to meet again, but the latter did not know the answer to it.  
  
Then overnight, Baekhyun just disappeared and Chanyeol knew his lover was gone forever.  
  
As the ship departed from the dock, Chanyeol posed the same question to Seulgi, but the young girl did not know the answer either. _But if you love each other enough, the Heavens will know, and they will show pity on you and send the magpies to you_ , she said. Chanyeol could only nod in response, as he looked forlornly at the magpie that his lover had embroidered on his pouch.

_***_

_{The magpies in the Heavens heard about the story and were touched by their love, so a flock of them came together to form a bridge that allowed the couple to finally reunite. Seeing this, the Queen Mother relented and gave the couple permission to meet on the Magpie Bridge once a year. Every 7th day of the 7th month since then, Altair would put the two children in a basket and lift them on his shoulders to meet Vega in the Heavens.}_

_**Chang An, 707 AD, Spring** _

“And that is the end of the story, my dear children,” the old Silla storyteller recounted with some tears glistening in his eyes. “It is a sad, sad story.”  
  
“But what happened to the both of them in the end?” One of the girls asked the elderly man.  
  
“I do not know what happened to them,” the storyteller replied, shaking his head. “Now that the sun has set, it’s time for all of you to return home, I cannot have your mothers coming here to demand for you.”  
  
Reluctantly, the children slowly got up and took turns to hug the elderly storyteller, then ran off for home together in groups. Only Jiaheng remained as he helped put the chairs back into their original positions. “Off you go too, my child,” the old storyteller told Jiaheng when just the both of them were left alone. “I can handle this on my own.”  
  
Jiaheng looked at the elderly man with a forlorn expression on his face and asked, “Sir, this story is about you, isn’t it?” The young boy then went forward to give the elderly man a hug. “And the portrait in the main hall, it’s Baekhyun, isn’t it?”  
  
The elderly man looked visibly surprised, but did not answer the young boy’s question. Instead he asked, “What makes you think so, my child?”  
  
“Because you named this the Magpie Inn,” the boy answered. “And Baekhyun is represented by the magpie.”  
  
The elderly storyteller smiled and gave the boy a hug in return, “you are very intelligent, my child, but this is a secret of the Heavens that I cannot tell you about.” Jiaheng nodded in understanding and used his handkerchief to wipe off the tears in the old storyteller’s eyes before going home too.  
  
The next day, the children found the Magpie Inn closed and returned home in disappointment. When they returned the following day, it was closed yet again. In fact, Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s story was the last story they ever heard from the old Silla storyteller. Eventually, the children all went over to the Magnolia Inn to listen to Old Master Lu’s stories, but once in a while, when Jiaheng walked past the now permanently closed inn, he would stop to wonder about the elderly storyteller and the man in his portrait. But nothing really happened and the Magpie Inn never reopened.  
  
A few months down the road on the 7th day of the 7th month however, Jiaheng looked up at the moon in the night sky and was reminded of elderly storyteller. So he slipped out of the house after his parents and siblings went to bed, and stealthily walked towards the familiar inn. He circled the inn once, but the front doors remained closed and the place appeared void of any beings. He was about to go back in disappointment until he spotted a faint glimpse of light seeping through the narrow space between the back doors. Quietly, he crept up to the door and peeked in. To his surprise, he saw familiar faces sitting at a round stone table, smiling at each other. Thankfully no one saw a young boy peeping through the doors and he was allowed to watch the couple for quite some time. And when it started getting colder and was time for him to return home, with a huge grin on his face, Jiaheng bowed down to the moon goddess and thanked her for the reunion.


End file.
